great poets proclaimed the new faith in the common man and those ideas were
most eagerly adopted further west in the youthful United States of America.

The United States intelligentsia and its population that was literate were
greatly influenced by the important British Romantic poets. Byron was
popular in America. The American transcendental poets, apart from the
conservatism of Puritanism, cherished the writings of the British literary elite.
Culturally, the United States was still a British province. This relationship was
supported in their time by American heroes like Franklin, Jefferson, and even
Adams. America was also a more egalitarian society where much was
accomplished by voluntary associations as opposed to powerful governments.
There were no monarchs nor autocrats.

The democratic nature of America, its egalitarianism, and its tradition of
mutual help made it possible for that society to perceive the value of pain
relief and pain prevention. The social and circus-like flirtation which
displayed or experimented with drugs that could become anesthetic agents
reinforced the likelihood of the "discovery of anesthesia" as an American
invention.

Once the "discovery" of anesthesia was announced in Boston, Britain and
western Europe responded as fast as the news could reach them by
transatlantic ships. The use of anesthesia spread quickly. However, there
were the same negative forces, as in America, to overcome. The conservative
medical profession, the careful physicians and the established churches were
allied by their separate, but compatible beliefs in opposing change.

The use of anesthesia was finally well established by late Victorian times.
The last symbolic act of approval was Her Majesty's acceptance of chloroform
to mitigate the labor pains of giving birth to the Prince Leopold. Victoria
secured the acceptance of anesthesia as agreeable to God. It was a major
statement by a monarch.

-136-